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World Cup 2026: The rise of the refugee stars representing Germany, Canada, Australia and more

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Germany and Real Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger, whose family fled Sierra Leone’s civil war, is among those campaigning for a change in global attitudes around refugees.

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Five famous footballers who fled the war

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Five famous footballers who fled the war

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Five famous football players who fled war | The IRC

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Ahead of the FIFA WorldCup 2022, we celebrate the impact refugees have had on football.

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Five real-life stories about young people fleeing their homelands to live in the UK, told by the children themselves. These films combine engaging testimony with rich animation and give a unique insight into the lives of young people who have sought asylum in the UK. Each of the films powerfully communicates the collective struggles and hopes of these young people and the issues they face adjusting to life in the UK.

The series explores themes including immigration, persecution, separation and alienation and aims to help educate students at Key Stage 2 and 3. However young people and adults of all ages can enjoy these films.

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BBC Two - Seeking Refuge, Seeking Refuge Promo

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Five real-life stories about young people fleeing their homelands to live in the UK, told by the children themselves. These films combine engaging testimony with rich animation and give a unique insight into the lives of young people who have sought asylum in the UK.

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Ruth's story: One child refugee's journey from Eritrea to England

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Ruth's story: One child refugee's journey from Eritrea to England

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Ruth was 14 when she left her home country of Eritrea in east Africa.

She didn't like the way she was being treated, so she embarked on a dangerous journey to the UK.

Ruth has been telling Newsround's Hayley her story...

Three-thousand children arrived in the UK alone last year.

Many of them are migrants or refugees escaping war or devastation in their home countries. They've travelled thousands of miles across deserts, mountains and seas.

When they get to the UK they are often tired and afraid.

They are taken by immigration officers or police to a safe place where they are asked lots of questions.

This is so that the people in charge can understand how old the child is, where they have come from and what they will need to keep them healthy and safe.

If the child is under 17, they are given leave to remain, which means they can stay in the UK and will be looked after until they are old enough to look after themselves.

This often means they are placed with a foster family who look after them as though they are part of their family. They can start going to a local school and they can start to make a life for themselves here in the UK.

Many of the children stay around Kent and Dover in the south of England because that is where they first arrive. In the past year Kent has placed nearly 1,000 children in homes in that area.

I have spoken to 12 children. All of them have come from various countries ranging from Eritrea and Sudan to Syria and Afghanistan.

One of them was Ruth. Like many of the child refugees here, she travelled thousands of miles alone and experienced many difficult things along the way.

Ruth told me about her life when she was 14. She lived in the countryside in Eritrea. She told me how she often helped her mum by chopping wood and getting water from the river.

But this was no easy task. The river was a three-hour walk away and carrying a heavy load was very tiring for Ruth.

Ruth's dad left home many years ago. He was taken to join the army of Eritrea - many poor people are forced to join up against their will.

Ruth has not seen her dad since and doesn't know where or how he is.

Talking to Ruth, I could tell she is a brave and strong girl and she didn't like the way she was treated in Eritrea. She loved going to school but was told she either had to marry someone she didn't know or join the military.

She told me she was very afraid of both options so she decided to leave Eritrea and search for a better life in another country.

She left her home in the middle of the night. She couldn't tell her family she was leaving because she was afraid they would be hurt if anyone from the military found out.

Also she knew they would be upset. So she left in secret with nothing more than the clothes she was wearing. She met up with two friends and they walked towards the border with Sudan.

Ruth told me that she was very scared. She was scared of getting caught or being put in prison and hurt.

One of the scariest parts was when she travelled through the forests of Ethiopia. She could hear hyenas and she had to hide behind trees and just hope that they wouldn't find her.

After that, she met many people in camps hidden in the forest. With these people she travelled over the desert to Sudan. It was so hot that many of the people she was walking with died beside her.

Ruth was mostly scared of the Sudanese people. She said they hated her because she was Christian; they would often hurt her and bully her.

In Sudan, Ruth was put into a small house with hundreds of other people. She wasn't allowed to speak or to go outside. She was beaten and hurt by the people in charge of this house.

After a month, Ruth was put in a lorry with about 250 other people and sent to Libya. The lorry was piled with people inside and out. There was no room for her to sleep or sit and she was not allowed out - not even to go to the toilet.

She was in the lorry for three weeks and some people died.

When she got to Libya she was put in a camp. She lost her friends and she said she was very lonely. Without any money, she had little hope of getting out of the camp and every night she cried.

In this camp, Ruth got one glass of water and one piece of bread to share with a group of people.

After three months, she finally managed to escape to the coast. She told me how amazed she was to see the sea - it was so big and black with huge fish that she had never seen before.

Ruth got on board a boat. It was only about four metres long but held 500 people. This, she said, was when she was most scared.

She thought she would die as she was crushed and had no water on a very long and dangerous journey. Many of the people in the boat did die on that journey.

Luckily, she was eventually rescued by an Italian rescue boat.

But when she got to Italy it was not much better. She was ill and had nowhere to go. She slept on the street in the rain and the cold.

She then managed to get on to a train to France. Here she was taken to a camp where every night she tried to board a lorry to get to the UK.

But most nights she was caught and taken back to the camp. Then one night she managed to get inside a box in a lorry that was headed to England.

When she arrived in England she told me she was nervous. It was raining and a police officer found her and asked her lots of questions. But soon after that, things started to look better and she was placed with a foster family, which is where she lives now.

Ruth now goes to college and church and has many friends. She told me that she still misses her family but she's glad she isn't in Eritrea. She now loves studying and wants to be a nurse when she's older.

It was very difficult for Ruth to tell me her story. But she's a strong girl and she wants people to know what thousands of kids like her go through every year to get to safety.

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Ruth's story: One child refugee's journey from Eritrea to England - CBBC Newsround

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Ruth was 14 when she left her home country of Eritrea in east Africa. She didn't like the way she was being treated, so she embarked on a dangerous journey to the UK. Ruth has been telling Newsround's Hayley her story... Three-thousand children arrived in the UK alone last year.

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Animated Journey of a War Child: THE BOX - From Playhouse to Lifeboat

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The Box tells the story of a happy childhood disrupted by war. A box that begins as a carefully built toy house becomes a shelter in a dangerous refugee camp, and finally a boat carrying hope as the child journeys toward safety.

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An Award-Winning Animated Journey of a War Child: THE BOX - From Playhouse to Lifeboat

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Refugee Week is the world's largest arts & culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.

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Ages

5-16

Duration

Medium (5-11 activities)

Nation

England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales

Related calendar events

UK Refugee Week
20 June - 26 June

This resource is for teachers and Into Film club leaders to use to mark Refugee Week, and for stimulus to discuss the hardships and resilience of refugees around the globe raised in the curriculums in England,Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.This resource contains a guide to five films, which have been specially selected to be accessible to learners within the 5-19 age range. The guides include discussion questions and activity ideas to encourage learners to ask and answer questions and reflect on why people seek sanctuary in other countries.

This resource includes

This Resource Supports

Citizenship

PSHE Education

Personal

Got Some Feedback?

We love to hear how educators have used our resources.

Contact us

Updating our resources

We have developed a large catalogue of educational resources since launching in 2013, and some references and terminology will inevitably have dated as society and language evolves. We are aware of this and will be updating resources when our production schedule allows.

"I think that our work on 'The Girl and the Fox' has really benefitted our children. I would thoroughly recommend the Into Film approach to any school wanting to improve attainment in literacy."

- Tim Dadds, Deputy Headteacher, Cwmrhydyceirw Primary School, Wales

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5-16 Medium (5-11 activities) England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales UK Refugee Week20 June - 26 June This resource is for teachers and Into Film club leaders to use to mark Refugee Week, and for stimulus to discuss the hardships and resilience of refugees around the globe raised in the curriculums in England,Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.This resource contains a guide to five films, which have been specially selected to be accessible to learners within the 5-19 age range.

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Aberystwyth: Holocaust refugee meets woman who fled Syrian war

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Wales - Holocaust Refugee Meets Syrian Refugee

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Wales - Holocaust Refugee Meets Syrian Refugee

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Aberystwyth: Holocaust refugee meets woman who fled Syrian war

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Two women who fled to Wales in different centuries find common ground on loss and integration.

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From being asked whether you arrived in the UK on a lorry, or whether you thought about going somewhere else, to the questions about what it's like to be... questioned. If you're a refugee, you'll be well-versed in answering these common queries.

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Things You'll Know As A Refugee - BBC Three

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From being asked whether you arrived in the UK on a lorry, or whether you thought about going somewhere else, to the questions about what it's like to be... questioned. If you're a refugee, you'll be well-versed in answering these common queries.

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Free online classes for Ukrainian students – grades 1-11

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Голоси дітей

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Arseniy: Most of all I worry about my parents

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"We are not just a burden on society," says Ghofran Hamza, who left her home in Syria at the start of the civil war in 2011.

She says refugees can play a role in societies that help them, and support others.

Ghofran met with Renate Collins, who fled Prague, in then Czechoslovakia, and the Holocaust at the launch of an exhibition tracing the lives of refugees in Wales from the 1930s to the present day.

Both agreed that they have been made to feel welcome in Wales.

"I went to a coffee morning [on] Tuesday and I've never had so many hugs in my life," says Renate. "It was lovely."

The exhibition at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Ceredigion, runs until 29 January.

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Refugees feel at home thanks to Welsh welcome

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"We are not just a burden on society," says Ghofran Hamza, who left her home in Syria at the start of the civil war in 2011. She says refugees can play a role in societies that help them, and support others.

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ODILO is humbled to contribute its bit by offering Ukrainian children, their families and teachers an unlimited learning and entertainment platform. Users are able to learn new languages, cultures, history of the country of residence and many other subjects through virtual classes, book clubs and endless learning experiences. It is also an incredible source of entertainment as families can together enjoy unlimited resources of interest in a multi-format way.

Download the App to learn differently and enjoy family time!

- From now on you can use the app with the SplitView functionality of the iPads.
- We have added a setting to the book viewer allowing to replace reading percentage with page numbers.
- Some text settings can now be applied to books that previously did not allow settings to be changed.
- The option to keep the screen on while reading is now found within the book viewer settings.
- We have implemented a new design for app information messages.
- Some sections of the More menu have been renamed and reordered, but their functionality remain the same.
- Accessibility improvements.
- Bug fixes.

The developer, Odilo, indicated that the app's privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

Languages

English, Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Dutch, French, Galician, German, Hebrew, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian

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‎ODILO is humbled to contribute its bit by offering Ukrainian children, their families and teachers an unlimited learning and entertainment platform. Users are able to learn new languages, cultures, history of the country of residence and many other subjects through virtual classes, book clubs and en...

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Teachers TV - 9 stories - International Refugee Trust

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Teachers TV - 9 stories - International Refugee Trust

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The Muha family have found happiness in Wales after fleeing the war in Syria.

Refugees Fatima and Khaled and their two children say they are happy in Wales after they spent five years in a refugee camp.

They now hope to rebuild their lives in their new home in rural Carmarthenshire.

The family had only lived in the house for a few months after Khaled had spent 15 years building it when it was destroyed by a missile.

He said: "We need to stay in Wales because Welsh people are very quiet and friendly."

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Syrian refugees find happiness in rural Wales

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The Muha family have found happiness in Wales after fleeing the war in Syria. Refugees Fatima and Khaled and their two children say they are happy in Wales after they spent five years in a refugee camp. They now hope to rebuild their lives in their new home in rural Carmarthenshire.

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ODILO For Android - Ukrainian students & teachers can learn new languages, cultures, history of the country of residence and other subjects through virtual classes, book clubs and learning experiences.       

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ODILO For Android - Ukrainian students & teachers can learn new languages, cultures, history of the country of residence and other subjects through virtual classes, book clubs and learning experiences.       

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In 1940, during the darkest days of World War Two, the evacuation of women, children, the elderly and infirm was ordered from Gibraltar, in order to fortify the Rock....

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‘I’d like to be a model for other refugees’

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A Syrian woman who arrived in UK as a refugee two years hopes to get back into teaching in Wales.

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Advertising

Lord Maurice Saatchi and Charles Saatchi - Founders of Saatchi and Saatchi advertising agency. Their father was an Iraqi Jewish refugee.

Architecture

Eva Jircicna - Designed the Faith Zone in the Millennium Dome. Refugee from Czechoslovakia.

Daniel Marot - Architect, furniture designer and engraver who designed Hampton Court Palace. Huguenot refugee.

Peter Moro - Born in Germany and moved to London, becoming one of the UK's most prominent post-war architects. Designed the Royal Festival Hall and the Nottingham Playhouse.

Richard Rogers - Designer of the Centre Pompidou and the Millennium Dome. His mother was a refugee from Trieste.

Art

Frank Auerbach - German-born British painter, considered one of the world's greatest living artists.

Marc Chagall - Russian-French artist of Belarusian Jewish origin.

Jacob Epstein - British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. Son of Polish-Jewish refugees.

Peter Carl Fabergé - Russian jeweller, fled Russia via Finland, Germany to Switzerland.

Lucien Freud - Well-known British painter, German-Jewish refugee.

Mona Hatoum - Well-known British painter, Palestinian-Lebanese refugee.

Anish Kapoor - Won the 1991 Turner Prize. His parents were refugees who fled Iraq.

Camille Pissarro - Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter, Danish-French-Jewish refugee.

Sir John Tenniel - Cartoonist and book illustrator, descended from Huguenot refugees.

Alfred Wolmark - Painter, Polish-Jewish refugee.

Business

Sir Montague Burton - Founded Burton retail, refugee from Lithuania.

Sir John Houblon - First Governor of the Bank of England, grandson of refugees.

Manubhai Madhvani - Expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin.

Michael Marks - One of the founders of Marks and Spencer, Russian refugee.

Sieng van Trang - Founder of the educational website www.iLearn.to, Vietnamese refugee.

George Weidenfeld - Publisher, Jewish refugee who fled the Nazis.

Fashion and Design

Sir Alec Issigonis - Designer of the Mini car, refugee.

Tanya Sarne - Fashion designer and creator of the Ghost label, father was a Russian refugee.

Lewis de Teissier - Founder of Tessier's jewellers, and the grandson of refugee Jaqcues de Teissier.

Alek Wek - Supermodel, fled Sudan with her family.

Manufacturing

Lakshmibhai Pathak - Founder of Patak's, was a Kenyan refugee.

Rashmi Thakrar - Founder of Tilda Rice, Ugandan refugee.

Music and Dance

Bob Marley - Famous musician, fled Jamaica to Miami after being shot during political violence.

Fritzi Massary - Austrian-Jewish operetta singer, refugee.

Norbert Brainin - Austrian-Jewish violinist, refugee.

Gloria Estefan - Cuban-American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman, father was a Cuban refugee.

Justine Frischmann - Lead singer of Elastica, father was a Hungarian refugee.

Wyclef Jean - Musician, former member of Fugees, Haitian refugee

K'Naan - Hip-hop artist, refugee from Somalia now living in Toronto, Canada.

M.I.A. - English-born singer/ hip-hop artist, part of a Tamil Sri Lankan refugee family.

Mika -Famous singer, fled from Lebanon.

Freddie Mercury - Lead singer of the band Queen, fled to England from Zanzibar in 1964.

Olivia Newton-John - Singer and actress, granddaughter of refugee Max Born.

Rita Ora - Singer, came to the UK as a refugee from Kosovo as baby.

Regina Spektor - Singer, songwriter and pianist. Originally fled Soviet Russia at the age of nine, now based in New York.

Shingai Shoniwa - Lead singer of the Noisettes. British-born daughter of Zimbabwean refugees.

Claude-Michel Schonberg - Composer whose works include Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, son of refugees.

Arnold Schoenberg - Austrian Composer, one of the most important composers in history, fled Europe due to increasing Nazi terror.

Gene Simmons - Member of Kiss, mother was a Holocaust survivor.

Sir Georg Solti - Conductor, refugee.

Robert Stolz - Austrian composer/conductor, refugee.

Oscar Straus - Austrian-Jewish composer, refugee.

Richard Tauber - Austrian-Jewish singer, composer and refugee.

Georg Ritter von Trapp - Father of the Trapp family, whose story inspired The Sound of Music after fleeing Nazi occupied Austria.

Politics

Madeleine Albright - Former U. S. Secretary of State, refugee From Prague.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Dutch politician, fled from Somalia.

Sitting Bull - Sioux chief, left America for Canada.

Lord Alf Dubs - Politician, refugee from Prague.

Margaret Hodge - Former British MP and Minister for Children, parents were refugees from Germany.

Michaëlle Jean - A refugee from Haiti- Governor-General of Canada from 2005 to 2010.

Henry Kissinger - American diplomat and political scientist, former US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, fled from Germany to USA in 1938.

Vladimir Lenin - Soviet leader, refugee who fled to Switzerland.

Friedrick Lessner - Founder member of the Independent Labour Party.

Karl Marx - Political theorist, German refugee.

David Miliband - British MP, son of a Belgian Jewish refugee.

Ed Miliband - Former leader of the Labour Party, son of a Belgian Jewish refugee.

Leon Trotsky - Marxist theorist.

Psychology and Philosophy

Michael Balint - Hungarian Jew, psychoanalyst, fled from Nazis.

Sigmund Freud - Austrian Jew, founded psychoanalysis, fled from Nazis in Austria.

Anna Freud - Psychoanalyst, daughter of Sigmund, fled with him.

Ernest Gellner - Czech-Jewish philosopher, fled from the Nazis.

Stephan Korner - Czech-Jewish philosopher, fled from the Nazis.

Claude Lévi-Strauss - French-Jewish philosopher and anthropologist, French refugee.

Karl Popper - Austrian-Jewish philosopher, fled from Nazis to New Zealand.

Religion

Isaac Abravanel - Rabbi and politician, fled from Portugal to Spain.

Rabbi Leo Baeck - Reform Rabbi, holocaust survivor.

Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits - Chief rabbi of Great Britain, fled from the Nazis to Britain.

Jesus - His family fled from the holy land because of King Herod.

Current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso - refugee, he fled Tibet when China invaded.

Rabbi Hugo Gryn - Reform rabbi and holocaust survivor.

Paul Kahle - Christian Hebraist, fled from the Nazis to Britain.

Mullah Krekar - Iraqi Kurdish mullah, lives in Norway.

Muhammad (PBUH) - Fled from Mecca to Medina in 622.

Science

Gustav Victor Rudolf Born - pharmacologist, German-Jewish refugee.

Max Born - Winner of Nobel prize for physics, German-Jewish refugee.

Edith Bulbring - Pharmacologist, German-Jewish refugee.

Carl Djerassi - The inventor of the first contraceptive pill, Austrian refugee.

John Dollond - Inventor of the achromatic lens, founder of Dollond and Aitchison, descended from Huguenot refugees.

Albert Einstein - One of the world's most famous scientists, German-Jewish refugee.

Alexander Grothendieck - Mathematician, German-Jewish refugee.

Robert Fano - Physicist, Italian-Jewish refugee.

Ugo Fano - Physicist, Italian-Jewish refugee.

Bernard Katz - Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist, German-Jewish refugee.

Sir Hans Krebs - Nobel Prize-winning scientist, German-Jewish refugee.

Sir John Krebs - Zoologist, son of Sir Hans Krebs.

Sir Harold Kroto - Nobel-winning chemist, son of German-Jewish refugees.

Liviu Librescu - Physicist, fled from Romania to Israel.

Lord (Claus) Moser - British professor of statistics and head of the Government Statistical Service, Austrian-Jewish refugee.

Sport

Alexander Alekhine - Chess World Champion, moved from Communist Russia to France.

Ossip Bernstein - Chess grandmaster, escaped from Communist Ukraine to France.

Efim Bogoljubow - Chess grandmaster, moved from the Soviet Union to Germany.

Fedor Bohatirchuk - Chess grandmaster, moved from Ukraine to Canada.

Jelena Dokic - Tennis player, Serbian refugee.

Mebrahtom Keflezighi - Olympic marathon silver medallist, Eritrean refugee to US

Lomana LuaLua - Football player who has played for Colchester United, Newcastle United and Portsmouth, was a refugee.

Mario Stanic - Former footballer with Chelsea. He used to play for Sarajevo F.C. who were targeted during the Bosnian War.

Christopher Wreh - Former Arsenal footballer, Liberian refugee.

TV and Film

Jackie Chan - Fled to the US from Hong Kong after being threatened with death by the Triads.

Zohra Daoud - Former Afghani actress and model, now settled in Malibu, California.

Marlene Dietrich - Actress and refugee from Nazi Germany.

Omid Djalili - Comedian and actor, he and his family are Iranian refugees.

Ben Elton - Comedian, grandson of a Czechoslovakian refugee.

Baron Lew Grade - Television mogul and uncle of Michael Grade, was a Russian refugee.

Fritz Lang - Film director, and a half-Jewish refugee.

Jerry Springer - Talk show host, parents were German refugees.

Rachel Weisz - Actress, both parents are Jewish refugees.

Billy Wilder - Film director and writer, Jewish refugee.

Writing and Publishing

Reinaldo Arenas - Cuban novelist, became a refugee in the USA after years of persecution for his sexuality and political ideas. His autobiography, Before Night Falls, was on the New York Times list of the ten best books of the year 1993 and was made into a film in 2000.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown - Journalist and author, Ugandan refugee.

Isabel Allende - Author of The House of Spirits, Chilean refugee who fled after receiving death threats following the overthrow of her father's cousin, Salvador Allende.

Hannah Arendt - one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. Born into a German-Jewish family, she was forced to leave Germany in 1933.

Elias Canetti - Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, Bulgarian refugee.

Joseph Conrad - Author of Heart of Darkness, refugee.

Anne Frank - German-born diarist, as a child she fled from Nazi Germany to the Netherlands.

Karen Gershon - A writer and poet, as a child she fled from Nazi Germany to Great Britain.

Michael Hamburger - A noted British Translator and Poet, as a child he fled from Nazi Germany to London.

Lord Paul Hamlyn CBE - The founder of Octopus Publishing Group, Jewish refugee from Germany.

Victor Hugo - Author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, due to his political beliefs, he was forced to flee France several times.

Ismail Kadare - A winner of the Booker prize who fled Albania in 1990 for political reasons.

Shaparak "Shappi" Khorsandi - A British comedian and author of Iranian origin. She is the daughter of the Iranian political satirist and poet Hadi Khorsandi. Her family left Iran when she was a child following the Islamic Revolution.

Marina Lewycka - Author whose first book, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, sold over a million copies worldwide.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Novelist and film screenwriter, German-Jewish refugee.

Judith Kerr - Children's writer, German-Jewish refugee.

Thomas Mann - Winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, moved from Germany to Switzerland and from there to the US.

Rigoberta Menchú - An author and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, Guatemalan refugee.

Vladimir Nabokov - Russian author and lepidopterist, escaped to Europe from the Russian Civil War and then to the US from the advance of Nazi Germany.

Ursula Owen - Editor of Index on Censorship, was a German refugee as a baby.

John O'Donnell-Rosales - Cuban author, poet and journalist, escaped from Cuba with the remnants of his family after years of persecution for their political and religious views.

Felix Salten - Author of Bambi, Hungarian-born Jewish refugee from Nazis.

Loung Ung - A survivor of the Killing Fields of Cambodia, activist and author of the books First They Killed My Father and Lucky Child.
See our Literature section for a comprehensive list of refugee authors
Miscellaneous

Ossip Bernstein - Chess player, fled from Russia to France.

Alina Fernandez - Daughter of Fidel Castro, fled Cuba to Spain , now lives in the United States. Former model, now hosts a talkshow.

Otto Kahn-Freund - Lawyer, German Jew who fled Nazi Germany to the UK.

Dalai Lama - His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso is the spiritual leader of Tibet. In 1959, following the Brutal suppression of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa by Chinese troops, he was forced to escape into exile and has since been living in Dharamsala, northern India.

Christoph Meili - Whistleblower, fled from Switzerland to the US because an arrest warrant was issued against him.

Merhan Karimi Nasseri - An Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Charles de Gaulle Airport from 1988 to 2006. Subject of the Steven Spielburg film 'The Terminal'.

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Lord Maurice Saatchi and Charles Saatchi - Founders of Saatchi and Saatchi advertising agency. Their father was an Iraqi Jewish refugee. Eva Jircicna - Designed the Faith Zone in the Millennium Dome. Refugee from Czechoslovakia. Daniel Marot - Architect, furniture designer and engraver who designed Hampton Court Palace. Huguenot refugee.

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 An American Tail, Casablanca, Monsieur Lazhar, The Kite Runner, The Terminal

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Into Film - Refugee Week - Suggested Films & Activities

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Into Film - Refugee Week - Suggested Films & Activities

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4 mins 23 secs - no dialogue

Highlighting the experience of refugee children around the world

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Home | an Aardman and Save the Children UK short film

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International Rescue Committee - meet refugee & immigrant artists

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Michael Rosen and Sita Brahmachari - Refugee Week 2021

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British Red Cross teaching resources: Refugees welcome

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English, Art, Citizenship, Drama and PSHE teaching resource to encourage learners to consider the impact of welcoming refugees and asylum seekers.

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Positive Images - Migration and Development

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Positive Images - Migration and Development

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Teaching resource exploring positive images and videos about migration and development.

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British Red Cross - Sharing Stories - Primary and Secondary

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British Red Cross - Sharing Stories - Primary and Secondary

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Books 2 - Refugees and Asylum Seekers PADLET

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Books 2 - Refugees and Asylum Seekers PADLET

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Ncuti Gatwa: The Scottish-Rwandan roots of the 14th Doctor Who

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"The future is here and it's Ncuti" is how returning Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies announced the casting of Ncuti Gatwa as the 14th Doctor.

Doctor Who is a drama centred on the renewal and regeneration of its main character and in many ways, 29-year-old Gatwa embodies that renewal.

He arrived in Scotland in 1994 as a refugee fleeing a genocide and is now preparing to take on the role of one of the most iconic characters in British TV.

Who is the new Doctor?

Gatwa was born in Kigali, Rwanda, in October 1992 when the country was already fully embroiled in a civil war. He and his family moved to Scotland when he was just two years old.

He spoke about his experience in 2019, as part of the BBC Scotland documentary Black and Scottish.

"We came to the UK because of the genocide that happened in Rwanda in 1994," he said.

"We were refugees, we were refugees coming to the UK and I definitely now view myself as a Rwandan-Scotsman. Yes there's such a term and I'm giving it a name today."

Gatwa was raised mostly in Dunfermline and Edinburgh. He attended Boroughmuir High School and Dunfermline High School before moving to Glasgow to study acting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

The 29-year-old said he didn't encounter many people like him as he grew up in Scotland.

"I definitely felt growing up that I wasn't seen as the same as anyone around me because no-one around me looked like me.

"I remember my mum being like, 'everyone looks the same'. She travelled all around Edinburgh... trying to find someone that was black and she couldn't see anyone.

"Role models? There were no black Scottish role models. I felt like I was the only black person in the world."

The idea that he might become an actor first came when he was 17, and after training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland he moved to London.

Andrew Panton is the artistic director of Dundee Rep Theatre, where Gatwa used to perform. He told BBC Scotland the theatre was hugely proud of him.

"I think Ncuti always had something special about his work, he has always been really focused and there is a mischievousness to a lot of the work he does," he said.

"I will be excited to see what he brings to Doctor Who because every actor who plays that role can do something with it. I have no doubt that Ncuti is going to do something really special."

Gatwa's first TV acting role came with a brief appearance in Scottish sitcom Bob Servant, alongside Brian Cox and Jonathan Watson.

For a time in 2018 he ended up homeless and acting auditions weren't just potential opportunities, they were lifelines.

Breakthrough role

In 2019, Gatwa's career took off in a big way after landing a role in Netflix's Sex Education.

He plays Eric Effiong, a gay teenager from a British Nigerian family in the critically-acclaimed series.

His character is bursting with energy, sass and joyfully flamboyant - comfortable in his sexuality, but true to his African heritage.

This was the breakthrough that earned Gatwa a Scottish Bafta and many Bafta nominations as well.

It was also the role that shot him to stardom and eventually into the world of Doctor Who.

'You just are who you are'

Gatwa will be the fourth Scottish actor to take on the role of the Doctor. However, the actor has spoken of his struggle over how to show off his Scottish identity.

"I've always been a bit scared to say that I was Scottish because it was almost as if people wouldn't believe me, or people wouldn't buy that from me, or people wouldn't accept it," he said.

"Now, I think nobody's got the right to tell you who you are. You just are who you are."

Stewart Kyasimire, who made BBC Scotland's Black and Scottish documentary, said Gatwa taking on the role of the Doctor would create a new role model for black Scots.

"I think for the creative community in Scotland and throughout, seeing this young black Scot and seeing him as the next Doctor Who - I think it opens up a lot of conversations," he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme.

"I have been speaking to a lot of people in the black community and they are like, 'I don't know much about Doctor Who but just know that I am 100% invested now.'

"Then you have your Sex Education fans who are a younger demographic as well. It's opened up a wide audience".

Davies, who is is returning as Dr Who's showrunner after leaving in 2009, praised Gatwa's "blazing" audition and said he was the future of Doctor Who.

"It was our last audition. It was our very last one," the writer and producer said. "We thought we had someone, and then in he came and stole it.

"I'm properly, properly thrilled. It's going to be a blazing future."

Doctor Who prides itself on being inclusive and a show which provides a safe space for individuality.

Gatwa is likely to open the show up to new audiences and give another generation of fans a new role model when he makes his debut as the Time Lord next year.

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Ncuti Gatwa: The Scottish-Rwandan roots of the 14th Doctor Who

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Ncuti Gatwa is preparing to take on the role of one of British TV's most iconic characters.

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I Am Not a Number: A Refugee's Tale | Nujeen Mustafa | TEDxExeter

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I Am Not a Number: A Refugee's Tale | Nujeen Mustafa | TEDxExeter

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The boy who found refuge in 1930s Britain and stayed for good

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At the height of the Spanish Civil War, thousands of Basque children were evacuated from the north of Spain to safety in Britain.

In April 1937, General Franco asked the German Luftwaffe to carpet-bomb the historic Basque town of Guernica.

Hundreds of people died in an indiscriminate attack that caused international outrage and huge concern about civilians.

In Britain, volunteers raised money to send a ship to collect Basque child refugees. Herminio Martinez, then aged seven, was one of them.

He spoke to Witness about his memories of the evacuation and his life as a refugee.
Witness the stories of our times told by the people who were there.

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The boy who found refuge in 1930s Britain and stayed for good

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At the height of the Spanish Civil War, thousands of Basque children were evacuated from the north of Spain to safety in Britain. In April 1937, General Franco asked the German Luftwaffe to carpet-bomb the historic Basque town of Guernica. Hundreds of people died in an indiscriminate attack that caused international outrage and huge concern about civilians.

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From Refugee To Millions Of Followers | Yusra Mardini

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From Syria to Rio 2016 - The story of Yusra Mardini | Refugee Olympic Team

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Can be used with older learners. See this child’s life transform over a year of conflict.

“Just because it isn’t happening here doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.”

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Ricardo Quaresma - Footballer - Portugal/ Inter Milan - Roma

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Ricardo Quaresma - Footballer - Portugal/ Inter Milan - Roma

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A mobile phone was a luxury that a young Ricardo Quaresma could not afford.

In May 2000 he was away in Israel with the Portugal Under-16s. He'd woken up feeling unwell and was desperate to get in touch with his mum back in Lisbon.

Burning up with fever, there was only one thought on his mind: how to get back home as quickly as possible.

Instead Quaresma was convinced to stay, and despite his condition he went on to play in the European Under-16 Championship final. He scored twice as Portugal beat Czech Republic 2-1 in extra-time to lift the trophy.

Those two goals would forever change his life.

Watching from the stands in Tel Aviv was Romanian manager Laszlo Boloni, who would take charge of Sporting Lisbon a year later. One of his first moves was to promote Quaresma to the senior side.

By the end of the 2001-02 season, Sporting were champions and Quaresma the breakout star of a campaign that paved the way for what was to come for him: moves to Barcelona, Inter Milan, and for a loan spell, Chelsea.

During Portugal's victorious Euro 2016 campaign he was involved in every game. He scored the winner against Croatia in the last 16 and converted the decisive penalty against Poland in the quarter-finals.

At age 32, helping his country to its first major title was the high point of his career. But off the pitch he was making an even bigger impact.

That summer, for the first time ever, a player of Roma heritage had the entire country behind him. It led many to wonder whether a turning point had been reached.

"Can a football hero put an end to 500 years of racism?" asked Renascenca, one of Portugal's major radio stations.

Such was the way Quaresma and his roots were embraced by fans that, before the final against France, national newspaper Diario de Noticias came up with an article stating that "our gypsy is better than theirs". It was a reference to rival striker Andre-Pierre Gignac, another footballer of Roma origin.

After the tournament however, the mood changed once more.

"It obviously made us proud to have a member of our community excelling at the highest level, but at the same time it was a bit of a mix of emotions for us that is not easy to explain," says Vitor Marques, founder and current vice-president of the Portuguese Roma Union.

"Unfortunately, our community is still very discriminated in Portugal. We watched an entire country give Ricardo standing ovations and sing his name, but then the following minute those very same people will refer to us all as criminals when one of our own does something wrong.

"In other words, we are not all as talented as Ricardo when he succeeds, but if a single person from our group commits a crime we're all instantly thrown into the same bag and deemed a bunch of criminals? It shocks me every time I hear that.

"As much as Portugal doesn't consider itself to be a racist country, there are clearly situations of racism that persist in our society."

Quaresma himself has had to cope with them.

"I've never smoked, never drunk, never experimented (with drugs) nor have I ever wanted to. But there it is, because I'm Roma, I've got a reputation for being a lot of things in football," he said in an interview with SIC in June 2016.

The Roma are the ethnic minority that has been around in Portugal for the longest and yet they still feel, in some way, like foreigners in their own country.

A 2016 survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found that 71% of the community had experienced discrimination within the previous five years - the highest figure among the nine countries studied.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa admitted in 2018 that Portugal's strategy to fully integrate them had "failed". Romaphobia remains deeply-rooted and has more recently become a source of political gain among the growing far-right.

"We've got identity cards, but very often we hear people saying: 'Go back to your land.' It must be the gypsyland because I don't know where that is," Roma activist Pimenio Ferreira told public service broadcaster RTP.

A feeling of not being wanted forms part of daily life for Portugal's Roma population.

Research conducted by the in 2021 revealed that many considered Roma as undesirable neighbours, comparing them to alcoholics and drug addicts.

It's not unusual to find shops, restaurants and even pharmacies making use of racist practices in an attempt to keep them away. They do that by placing ceramic frogs at their entrances as the animal is seen as a symbol of bad luck and evil, especially by elderly Roma.

One of Portugal's biggest supermarket chains, Minipreco, had to apologise for doing this in 2019.

"We live under this idea that we are a tolerant nation, but that's a very dangerous concept," Marques says.

"We should embrace each other's cultures rather than tolerate them. If we don't change this mentality, we will never be equals.

"We've had the 25 April revolution that ended nearly 50 years of dictatorship and brought freedom to Portugal in 1974, but while the vast majority of citizens benefited we ended up forgotten.

"The day we are given the same conditions of access to education and work, we can say we are as Portuguese as the rest of the Portuguese, but that day has not yet arrived for us."

Last year, a report from the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe concluded that Portugal continues to violate the right to decent housing for the Roma community residing in the country.

Arguably the most illustrative example of this comes from the northern village of Torre de Moncorvo, where families were removed from tents in 2007 and placed in a deactivated prison complex, originally for only six months.

They have been waiting for a permanent solution for over a decade. Children have had to grow up in prison cells.

According to the the country's High Commission for Migration, there were 37,000 Portuguese Roma in 2017, but the number is disputed by other sources and some estimate it to be at least three times higher.

Over recent years they have been repeatedly vilified by Andre Ventura, leader of the far-right populist Chega (Enough) party that is now the third largest force in the Portuguese parliament, having won 12 seats in January's general elections.

A former TV football pundit, Ventura accuses Roma people of abusing welfare benefits and even proposed a specific confinement plan for them at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic because they have "a lot of difficulty in respecting the rules".

He was publicly confronted by Quaresma, who said his "racist populism only serves to turn men against men in the name of an ambition for power that history has already proven to be a path of doom for humanity".

In a Facebook post he added: "I have participated in several campaigns to appeal against racism, not because it looks good but because I believe that we are all the same and we all deserve the same opportunities in life.

"Eyes open friends, populism always says that it's simple to score a goal but actually scoring a goal requires a lot of tactics and technique."

Now 38, Quaresma is without a club since leaving Portuguese top flight side Vitoria de Guimaraes this summer. But he remains a powerful icon, and continues to apply that power in support of the Roma community.

He has recently backed the first women's team in the country formed by Roma girls and celebrated the success of Nininho Vaz Maia, a singer who has been making waves with his performances.

"Last night, a Roma filled the Coliseu (Porto's largest concert hall)! I'm very proud of the achievements the Roma are making in our society. Only with hard work can we defeat intolerance," he wrote on Instagram.

Insisting he has received plenty of offers and that he isn't ready to retire, Quaresma and his influential voice will likely remain active in football for some time to come. He plans to become a coach once he does hang up his boots.

And the fight is far from over for the Roma people of Portugal.

"For the persecution and the emptying of our culture, lifestyle and even our identities before the 1974 revolution, we deserve an apology," Marques says.

"We were watched by the police and had to be constantly on the move because we couldn't stay in a place for more than 24 hours. We were the most attacked community of the country.

"Other countries have apologised to their Roma people, but Portugal, no. I can only hope that one day someone will look into what we went through and what we still go through here."

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Not just a flair player: Quaresma's stand for Roma rights

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A mobile phone was a luxury that a young Ricardo Quaresma could not afford. In May 2000 he was away in Israel with the Portugal Under-16s. He'd woken up feeling unwell and was desperate to get in touch with his mum back in Lisbon.